Poor Eccentric One
by Doctor Robert
Summary: Modern AU. Owain's feeling down after a humiliating moment at school. He comes home to an empty house like any latch-lock kid and really could use a friend. Luckily he's kind enough to save his neighbor, Noire, from under the clutches of overfilled grocery bags! Pairings include: AvatarxLissa, MorganxYarne, TharjaxHenry, and I'll let you guess the last one. T for mild references


This is my first FE13/FEA fic! Better, it's my first honest oneshot too! ...And it's tremendous, hehehehe... Well, I don't think I want to split it and/or continue the story, so enjoy it the way it is (unless... you can really convince me to continue the story). Anyway, as advertised, it's a modern AU fic about Owain, my favorite character in FEA. This is really just my interpretation of how Owain would be and really why I love the character so much: he's a self-reflexing, self-aware, self-parodying, fun-loving guy who, on the surface, is insane, spewing great pieces of drama, but who is, deep down, sensitive and a little sad. In short, he's probably one of the most complex FE characters thus far and I find him to be something of a kindred spirit... I may have injected a wee bit of myself into the mix b̶u̶t̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶A̶v̶a̶t̶a̶r̶ ̶p̶o̶r̶t̶r̶a̶y̶e̶d̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶d̶a̶d̶d̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶s̶e̶l̶f̶-̶i̶n̶s̶e̶r̶t̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶  
p̶r̶o̶b̶l̶e̶m̶.̶

I was a bit disappointed with the Avatar's Daddy!supports with Owain, incidentally. It was WAY not what I'd be like with Owain (going with that self-insert flavour); I was picturing Me!Avatar and Owain geeking out about all the Einherjar heroes my Avatar would be recruiting...

But yes, before I bore you too much; I should say that no, I still don't own Fire Emblem, Intelligent Systems/Nintendo do and also enjoy the fic ^_^ :

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Poor Eccentric One

Owain sat alone at lunch. He sat in his usual spot on the campus of Sigurd Memorial High School. There was a large area just outside of the cafeteria that had a large square opening to the sky in the middle. It was called, in a stunning exertion of creative thought: The Quad. It was almost, kind of, sort of like a playground. Though the most anybody ever did in the quad was play hacky-sack. Owain missed the days with his friends playing Justice Cabal during recess… it seemed Owain had lost that luxury almost naturally as he grew older.

Instead, Owain munched on his sushi by himself as he sat against one of the pillars holding up the quad. He contented himself by updating his Manual of Justice. He was putting the finishing touches on an illustration; coloring in the blood and guts of a spent foe in the wake of the power of the Radiant Dawn attack. He used pastels primarily for illustrations such as this, the oily texture worked best for blood and guts. However lately Owain had been dead broke and so there were no pastels. Good thing his mom was so easy to steal lipstick from. He was very pleased with how this illustration was turning out, making sure his own self in the picture was as daring and as handsome as ever. The lipstick was epically easy to smear around with his fingers, definitely worth stealing to get the spent foe's entrails just right. He'd been concentrating for quite some time on that portrayal of blood and guts, motivated to let the awesomeness shine through… but suddenly a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed the Manual of Justice right out of Owain's hands.

"Oh look," laughed Inigo, "the little boy's playing with his diary again." He walked toward the center of the quad and flipped through the pages.

"H-HEY! Don't read that! That's… more than your mortal eyes can handle!" cried Owain, standing up.

"So, who wants to hear from little Owain's secret…" he looked momentarily at the title of Owain's book, taped on and scrawled in Owain's less than perfect handwriting, "Manual of Justice? Oh, what an adorable little name, but you spelled Justice wrong, by the way."

Owain's cheeks seared red as there were cheers and banter of agreement from the various students around the quad, including Owain's secret crush, Severa. Owain was nearly helpless lest he risk more embarrassment by running after Inigo. However the terror had only begun as Inigo opened Owain's most awesome chronicle. "Let's see here… 'Page 1: Owain. When danger nears, his sword hand twitches and his eyes turn red…' He crossed out danger three times before he spelt it right." A great deal of the students laughed at this.

"Give it baaaaaaaaack!" cried Owain in desperation, but this only caused more laughter to erupt. This was such a nightmare.

"'Every ally hurt within a hundred paces adds a power multiplier,'" continued Inigo, "looks like there's a picture too. Sorry guys, the dude can't draw," he showed the illustration to the patrons of the quad liberally before he turned to reading again, "'At +5, a special move is unlocked that can fell the enemy boss in one hit.' Well, isn't that impressive… sure didn't save you when Gecko punched you in the stomach and took your lunch money last week!" There was clapping and more laughter at this sick little act of horror.

Owain felt like he was going to cry. "Why are you doing this to me?" he almost asked himself, "this just can't be happening."

"Oh please. What are you? Five? Eight? How do you live with yourself, Owain? I'm embarrassed just reading this." He shook his head before turning back to the crowd, "Let's jump ahead here, shall we?" He skipped through the pages with an amused look on his face, "'Page 15: The Awesome Catalog of Ultimate Techniques!' I'm not going to even mention how many things he misspelt here… even after crossing out a few prior attempts. 'The Axe of Dorcas… The Laguz Leap… The Sacred Stones…' I think if he keeps this up, his stones will always be sacred, if you know what I mean." A few guys laughed hard at this filthy joke.

Owain crawled into a little ball and rocked back and forth, just wanting it to stop. Tears streamed down his beat red face. He just wanted it all to stop. "I wish I was dead," he whispered, "I just wanna die."

"Ah, here we go; 'Page 27: Weapon Names – D through Fuuuuuuu!" The 'f' turned into a curse word, cried out in pain. Owain looked up from his suffering to find a short figure with blond hair kick Inigo in the stomach a second time.

"You jerk!" cried Morgan, "you should be ashamed!" The 14 year old girl kicked Inigo a third time. It didn't bother her that she was at the least a good 8 inches shorter than the sophomore. She grabbed the book out of Inigo's hands. At this point, he fled out of the quad. "You all should be ashamed!" She cried, looking all around the quad at the ugly faces that had meanly mocked Owain, "Laughing at a poor lonely boy just because he has more creativity in his left pinky that you all have together combined! Leave my brother alone, Inigo! That goes for the rest of you, too!" Everyone looked rather perturbed at this, some moved back into the cafeteria even.

"That freshman is scary," remarked Gerome in his murmur-prone deep voice as he walked past.

Owain sniffed, wiping the tears out of his grey-blue eyes. He looked up and saw his little sister, bright green eyes filled with love and care. "Thanks… Thanks, Morgan," he said quietly, clearing his throat soon after.

"Don't worry about it," she said, sitting next to her elder brother, "I'm just glad the Manual of Justice is in the right hands again." The bell rang then, "Dangit… I gotta go; see you after school, bro." She hugged her big brother tight and said, "Don't kill yourself yet. We'll talk about what happened after school, okay?" With that she ran for her next classroom.

Owain didn't blame her. Her next class was on the other side of school anyway, which was a distance beyond reckoning. Owain sighed instead. He went to the bathroom to wash off his face and then suffered through the remainder of his classes.

He hated school now, everyone was cold and all his childhood friends had long ago abandoned him. If it weren't for his fellow Justice Cabal members; his little sister and his cousin Cynthia, he'd probably have killed himself… or worse, given in to the bleak, hateful, tasteless, and totally-un-fun realities of what everyone else thought was life. He hadn't given into the grey apathy yet… but deep down he knew he was pathetic. He knew everyone thought he was retarded and childish and creepy…

He had feelings, he had crushes, he wanted to be loved just as much as the next guy… but no girl that wasn't closely related to him wanted even a ghost of something to do with him. It didn't help that he wasn't exactly a hunk. He was pale, skinny, and average in height at best. He felt he didn't have anything in particular in the looks department to offer the fairer sex. His mom told him he was handsome, but he knew that was what every mother was obliged to tell their son when they were a teenager. He often just couldn't bring himself to believe her.

Instead he held onto his dreams. All the wonderful adventures and creations of his head he'd held since he was a much younger boy. They were his best friends now, aside from his fellow Justice Cabal members. He knew that if the 7 year old version of himself came forward in time and met him now, they'd instantly be best friends. He still could relate to his kid self in that way, he was still into much of the same things. The only difference between the two versions of himself, Owain figured, would be that the now Owain, as a 16 year old, was attracted to the opposite sex much more.

The end of the school day came at last. Owain waited at the front of the school for Morgan so they could walk home together like usual. The crowds thinned as Owain waited, the buses left the school, in ten minutes the entire school was completely deserted and it got so quiet you could hear a mosquito's breath. Owain sat on the concrete curb of the school's front for almost a half hour in wait for Morgan. After the half hour mark, Owain gave up and started for home by himself, feeling twice as sad as before.

It felt like the old tricks weren't working anymore. Maybe he was growing up… He wished he didn't have to… not like this, anyway. The cold autumn wind blew around his short poofy head of brown hair. He felt the wind's bitterness on his cheeks. He pulled his yellow hoodie closer to himself and readjusted his backpack. The feux fur interior seemed extra fluffy today; his mom probably had washed it last night.

He felt like crap right now, there was no sugarcoating it. He could've really used a friend at that moment but it wasn't like anybody would talk to him. Even his fellow Justice Cabal members were otherwise occupied. Cynthia had cheer leader practice. She was a good cheerleader, just like her big sister, Lucina, though admittedly in a completely different way. But that sort of after school occupation meant she had little time for her cousins, at least that's what she claimed.

Even Morgan, his own sister, seemed occupied of late. It wasn't the first time she'd basically abandoned him like that, but her earlier promise to "talk later" added to the pain he felt. True, Morgan had a boyfriend now and Owain completely understood that she'd want time with said boyfriend, but the least she could do was inform him that she had made plans. It hurt Owain that his sister didn't want to talk about Yarne, her boyfriend, at all. This Yarne guy was a big void to Owain and he couldn't understand why; Morgan and Owain used to confide in each other about everything. Owain valued the relationship he had with his sister more than anything… but it seemed he would lose even that.

With a sigh, Owain walked up to his house. It was a nice suburban two story place on a large lot; it was mostly blue. He dug into his jeans pockets for his house key. His parents would be working late at the hospital again as both his parents were doctors. Owain still maintained that their day jobs were just covers and they really did something much cooler. His father encouraged that fact… In fact Owain realized his dad did most of the encouraging when it came to the Justice Cabal and the Manuel of Justice amongst other things.

None of that helped how Owain felt now, however. Owain dug his key into the lock and shoved the rather heavy wooden door open, feeling like he was going to cry. The house was completely empty. A few tears escaped his eyes as he crossed the threshold. It was warmer inside but Owain didn't feel like being warm. The emptiness he felt inside his soul today was perfectly reflected by the weather outside. So he grabbed a snack from the kitchen and went back outside to sit on the cold concrete curb with his hood up.

He munched for a bit on dry Reese's Puff Cereal in a bowl… mostly what he was in the mood for when he examined the food in the kitchen. There was next to no traffic on Owain's out of the way suburban street. He was mesmerized for a few moments by the leaves dancing in swirls in the wind. _'Leaves on the wind; wonder where you been'd?' …No, that sucks… 'Leaves on the air; that's not really fair?'… no, 'all without a care'… Yeah._ The words came into his mind unannounced. The 16 year old couldn't stop the forming poetry if he tried.

"Hnnnnrrrggghhh!" He heard a scuff and the sound of a box falling to the ground. He looked up the street and spotted a small white haired girl, now kneeling to pick something up before returning it to one of two massive paper grocery bags. It was Noire, a girl in the same grade as Owain at his school.

Noire had white blond hair and a frightened look about her most of the time; quiet, mousy, and meek. She didn't have many friends. Things were said about her at school, that if you crossed her enough, she'd scream things like, "Blood and Thunder!" Owain had never heard her freak out himself, though. Oddly enough, she'd been best friends with Severa since they were in kindergarten. Severa, sociable though that she was, would sometimes hang out with Noire, though she was more likely to hurt you if you asked about those times. Otherwise, though, Owain always saw Noire alone at lunch and in the halls.

As she struggled up the street under the weight of the massive duo of bags, it looked like the both bags were about to slip out of her hands once more. Owain's sword hand twitched. Against his better judgment, the irate right hand of his started tugging in Noire's direction—before he knew it, he was on his feet and running to her aid… all without his consent! His swift dash and dive had caught the bags before they fell. "There, apocalypse averted," he said proudly. After all, it didn't do to be too flabbergasted about his unruly sword hand's antics.

"Eeep!" squeaked Noire with a small jump.

"I didn't mean to startle you, but your groceries were about to fall," said Owain as he attempted to take some of the weight of the bags off of Noire, "This sure is an awful heavy load."

"O-Oh… it's you," said Noire, "Owain, right?"

"Yeah, that's right," said Owain with a friendly smile, "Here, lemme give you a hand."

"Oh… um, but… are you sure?" she asked timidly.

"Sure I'm sure," said Owain, "Just drop 'em into my hands and let me white knight this thing!"

"T-Thank you," she almost muttered, "I'm sorry about all the trouble. I'm Noire, by the way, I live just—"

"Up here," he said, "I know, we've been neighbors for like six years— By the red hair of Eliwood, these bags are heavy!" Owain wasn't the strongest 16-year-old guy, but at least he could say he was handling the bags a bit better than Noire. Still, he really wished his arms were made up of more than bones and skin.

"I-I'm sorry," said Noire, "I was so hungry when I went to the supermarket. My parents don't really shop for food."

"Whoa, seriously?" asked Owain.

Noire blushed and whispered, "I shouldn't have said that."

It wasn't a secret that Owain's neighbors were really weird and a bit scary. He didn't know their first names. Noire's father was a white-blonde man who seemed entirely too happy but at the same time there was something about him that seemed completely emotionless. He was some sort of executive; he had to be to live in Owain's somewhat upscale neighborhood. His wife was a genuinely frightening woman. Owain rarely saw her, but when he did, he still got a chill up his spine… her thick black hair, her scary dark eyes that sometimes seemed to disappear… Owain used to have nightmares about her. Both Owain and Morgan agreed she spent her nights looking out the upstairs window at their house, her gaze pointed straight at their parent's room.

Noire climbed up the stairs of her house, the next door's identical twin. She dug her hand into her jeans pocket for her key. Neither of her parents' cars were in the driveway. Owain realized how alike the two of them were… real "latch-lock kids."

Opening the door she said, "Just through here." He walked into the house and found the general layout to be a mirror of his own house. The décor was Spartan at best… in fact it didn't look lived in at all aside from the odd simple piece of furniture. In the kitchen there looked to be nothing to eat… at all. "Thank you so much," she said.

"Need some help putting this stuff away?" Owain offered as he put the bags on the counter.

"Um… I, well, I think I've got it," she said awkwardly.

Owain surveyed the state of her house. The kitchen, the living room… it was cold and uninviting. Owain was cold just staying in this house, it honestly didn't feel any warmer than outside. He scratched the side of his head for a moment, as if he could make the awkward moment any more awkward. He asked, "Would you like to come over for a cup of tea?"

The question seemed to startle Noire. "W-what?"

Owain discovered that the moment could indeed be more awkward. He repeated, "Would you like to come over for a cup of tea? It's really cold and all…"

Noire swallowed, hardly believing what she was hearing. "You're inviting m-me?" she timidly breathed.

"Sure," shrugged Owain, "that is, unless you don't want to… it's not a big deal."

"Oh no," she said, "it's not that—that is, sure, I'd love to."

Owain smiled kindly as he led Noire over to his house. Perhaps the day hadn't turned out so bad after all.

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I could've gone on and on but I had to end it somewhere...ish. I love Morgan, she and Owain are perfect siblings. Also, this didn't start out as an OwainxNoire fic to be honest (really just an "Owain's emo and sad and lonely today" fic), but I like that particular couple a lot, I think they're cute together, all the shouting and madness (not so much, actually, it was wonderfully odd)... oodles of fun. :3 I hope you noticed the B support with Inigo and the C support with Noire that I tucked in there/modified a bit. The former made me laugh nearly the hardest I ever have over a game and the latter was just adorable.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it. A review would be kind. ^_^


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